


Alcohol Induced Candor

by jjbittenbinder



Category: Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Established Relationship, F/M, Mentions of Slavery, basically everything involved in the typical starfire origin story, honestly canon can go fuck itself at this point, mentions of torture, minor makeouts, some nudity, uhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 13:05:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16661625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jjbittenbinder/pseuds/jjbittenbinder
Summary: “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever known. What happened to you was horrible, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are absolutely incredible. You have been and will always be one of the strongest people I know, Kory. Both physically and emotionally. And I love you so much. So, so much. You know that.”Kory gets drunk on alien liquor. Dick picks up the broken pieces and helps her fit them back together.





	Alcohol Induced Candor

If Dick had known she had that in her pantry, he would’ve poured the whole damn thing down the drain. 

Kory had a handful of contacts outside the Milky Way, some were just friends, others supplied her with alien goods and products that she couldn’t find on Earth. All these imports went through some weird space version of customs, so Dick didn’t really worry about it too much. 

Normal Earth alcohol didn’t effect Kory unless she drank literal gallons of it, and even then she would only get vaguely tipsy. She had tried to get drunk on human liquor, getting the strongest stuff she could, stuff so strong that Dick wasn’t even sure if it was legal in this country, but she said three full-sized bottles only gave her a light buzz, so she gave up trying after a while. 

This bottle, however, was distinctly alien; curlyin shape and an odd translucent purple and the remaining liquid inside smelled strangely sweet, yet bitter at the same time. Dick had a hunch that it tasted like jet fuel mixed with blue cheese, or something else equally disgusting. He had found it knocked over on the kitchen counter when he came home from the precinct, along with a few empty glasses and a spill that Dick really hoped was water. 

Kory had drank the entire bottle, but Dick didn’t really know what that meant. Was it like wine? Whiskey? What percentage of alcohol was in this? Is it even technically alcohol at all? Maybe more in line with weed or a hallucinogen or- 

He heard laughter from the bathroom and set the bottle back down, taking a moment to steel himself before going to find her. 

It had been a hard week for her, a transmission had come in from her home planet Tamaran and all that she told Dick is that it wasn’t good news. She had sat out on the balcony for hours, staring up at the stars, wrapped up in one of Dick’s sweaters. That, plus a lapse in judgement she’d had during a recent battle had led to the death of one of her human friends, something that Dick knew was tearing her up inside. He’d been there, they’d all been. 

He found her sitting on the floor of the bathroom, her long legs in the shower that was currently running scalding hot water, but her torso was strewn across the tile, leaving her half in the shower and half out of it. She was dressed in nothing but a large t-shirt and underwear, and she had a dopey grin plastered across her face, looking up at him with glazed eyes, “Hey babe!”

Yeah, definitely drunk. 

Dick couldn’t help but smile back at her, going and turning the water off, “Hey there, you alright?” 

“Mmmhmm!” 

She wiggled her hips from side to side and let her arms flop down around her head, giggling to herself. He kneeled down next to her, “C’mon, let’s get you to bed.” 

“Mmm, alright,” she sat up with Dick’s help, leaning heavily on him, and reaching over to tug on his tie, “Aren’t you gonna kiss me hello?” 

She pulled him in, trying to kiss him, but he held her back with a firm hand, “Kory, come on.” 

Dick lifted her bridal style, ignoring both her continued attempts to kiss him and the fact that her legs were still dripping wet from the shower, and carried her back to their bedroom. He laid her down in bed and began to pull the blankets over her, but was forced to stop when she held his wrists in her hands, exerting more of her abnormal strength than she usually would, “Babe, kiss me.” 

He shook his head, “No, Kory. Not now.” 

She pouted, but still let him go, laying back against the headboard. He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead and finished getting her situated in the blankets. When he was done, her face was expressionless, her green eyes looking up at him. Her happy-go-lucky smile had vanished completely. 

He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, “I’m gonna get you some water, okay?” 

She nodded, still looking at him vacantly. 

Dick returned in a few minutes with a glass of chilled water and handed it to her, making sure she had a firm grip on it before letting go. He sat down on the side of the bed, resting his hand on her thigh comfortingly, “What happened?” 

She shook her head, bringing the glass to her lips and drinking all the water inside in one go. She set the glass down on the bedside table and curled onto her side, facing away from him, and pulled the covers up around her shoulders. Dick pulled his hand back, but still pressed on, “Kory, please, I want to help.” 

Kory was still for a long moment, making Dick think maybe she had gone to sleep. But then, suddenly she sat up, still facing away from him, and pulled her shirt off in one fluid motion. She took her bra off shortly after, dropping both things on the floor beside the bed. Dick was perplexed, but waited for her to speak.

“I know you’ve seen this before, but haven’t you ever wondered how I got it?” 

She was referring to her tattoo, the large, deep purple design that took up the expanse of her back. It was intricate and beautiful, detailed with characters that Dick always figured were in an alien language, probably Tamaranean. He had never really thought much about it; so many things about her were foreign to him, it was impossible for him to tell what was normal and what was unique to her situation. He had always just assumed it was cosmetic, like most earth tattoos. 

“Kory, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” 

“It’s a warrior’s mark, an ancient tradition on my planet. You receive it after your first successful battle, after you gloriously slay your first worthy enemy. It’s a celebration, like a rite of passage.  You get your mark the day after you and your family feast.” 

Dick reached out and tentatively grazed his fingers across the swirling design, “It’s beautiful.” 

“Yeah, it is.” 

She looked over her shoulder at him, and leaned back into his touch. He pressed his hands to her back, “Does it hurt? To get the mark, I mean.” 

“A little. I’m sure a human could compare it to an earth tattoo,” she sighed, drawing her eyebrows together thoughtfully, “But it means so much more.” 

“What does it say?” 

“It says my name and title, Koriand’r, royalty from the planet Tamaran of the Vega system, slayer of beasts.” 

He couldn’t help but smirk a little, “Slayer of beasts? Badass.” 

She turned slightly towards him, shifting to get more comfortable, “When I was very young, I ventured into the wilds alone and killed a Je’ye. They’re an invasive species that lives on the outskirts of the kingdom, they eat people alive and destroy farmland and livestock. It’s considered a great feat to kill one,” she twisted the thin metallic ring she had on her left pinky finger, “it’s something my mother did before me, and her mother before her.”

Dick took a moment to remove his outer shirt, pants, and shoes, and move further onto the bed, still laying his hand on her naked back, “So, it’s a royal thing?” 

“I guess.” 

He nodded thoughtfully, still tracing the pattern with his fingers, “Koriand’r, princess of Tamaran, slayer of beasts…” 

Kory took in a deep breath. She then turned suddenly and kissed him full on the lips, pressing her hands to his chest. For a moment, he melted against her just like he always did, kissing her right back and warming his hands on her flushed, bare skin. But, no. He can’t. He wrenched himself away from her, knowing that he couldn’t do this to her while she was like this, not only drunk but emotionally vulnerable and exposed. 

He sighed, gently holding her back by her shoulders as she tried to move back in to reignite the kiss, “Kory, we can’t. Not like this.” 

She looked at him for a moment with hooded eyes and then her shoulders slumped forward, and she leaned back on the headboard, “Sorry.” 

“Don’t apologize, I understand.” 

He pulled her against him, now going for comforting rather than sensual, and let her head rest against his shoulder as he pulled the blanket around the both of them. He took a deep breath, sinking back into the soft mattress, silently encouraging her to do the same.

Instead, she took his hand and pressed it to her upper arm, touching the metal band that seemed to always be there.

“Do you want to know about this one too?” 

She didn’t wait for a response, she just unfastened the band and dropped it on the bed beside them, holding her arm out for him to see. The tattoo that was hidden underneath was different than the one she had on her back, it looked almost like a barcode. It seemed to be a series of tiny square dots that wrapped all the way around her arm in a completely random order. 

She didn’t look at it, she just stared down at the blanket they were wrapped in, “It’s a fucking brand. Nothing I’ve done can get the damn thing off.” 

“A...brand?” 

Kory snarled, an involuntary action, “A slave brand. The Citadelians give one to all their slaves. Helps them keep track of us.” 

Dick frowned, feeling his heart grow so heavy for her, and Kory dropped her arm on the bedspread. 

“I’ve tried scrubbing at it, burning it with fire and my starbolts, freezing it to the negatives, nothing fucking works. I’m stuck with it.” 

She dug her fingernails into it, as if willing it to recede off her skin and into thin air, but it didn’t even look faded.  

“I’m still in their system. If they...if they ever got me again they would know everything I’ve done. I wish I had destroyed my file before I fled.” 

Kory bit her lip, turning her head and burying her face in his shoulder, her words now muffled, “I wish I could just… cut it off. I want to destroy it. I want to burn that part of me to ash and then burn the ashes.” 

Dick cupped her cheek, wiping a stray tear away with his thumb, “Don’t say that.” 

Kory sighed, “I just want to stop hurting.” 

Silence settled over them. 

Dick understood. Of course he did, but what could he say? Nothing could make it stop, not really. That much he knew for sure. 

Out of nowhere, she said, “They used to cut me open,” she pressed her pointer finger to the center of the base of her neck and slowly dragged it down to her navel,  “All the way down, like that. Just to see, you know? I was so  _ interesting  _ to them, so they would sew me right back up, make me good as new, and pick a new spot the next day. They wanted to look at my insides, I think. See what Tamaranean physiology had to offer them.” 

Dick pulled her in closer, feeling tears prick his eyes, “Kory…”  

“Mm, I think the worst was when they would leave me hooked up to those machines overnight. Or when they didn’t sedate me enough before they started a procedure, or when they didn’t sedate me at all,” she chewed on her lip, “They fed me their food, every day, all day. It was some kind of brown paste that tasted like regurgitated rancid cinnamon. I still can’t smell it without throwing up. Fucked me up, I guess.” 

Dick adjusted them so they were laying down, surrounded by pillows and blankets, and held her firmly to his chest. She clung to him, shaking with sobs now, “-fucked me up, I’m fucked up.” 

“Don’t say that, you’re not fucked up.” 

She whimpered, shaking her head weakly. 

“Kory, stop.” 

She murmured something he didn’t understand, but nevertheless, he continued to speak to her in a soft tone, “You are the most amazing person I’ve ever known. What happened to you was horrible, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are absolutely incredible. You have been and will always be one of the strongest people I know, Kory. Both physically and emotionally. And I love you so much. So, so much. You know that.” 

She let out a noise that sounded halfway between a sigh and a groan, and wrapped her leg around both of his in order to pull him closer. 

“Everything in our lives that has happened has lead me to you. The bad things too, every single thing. I love every single part of you, Kory: the fearless warrior, the elegant princess, the loyal friend, the passionate lover. I wouldn’t change anything about you.”

Kory was silent and still for a moment, and then she raised her head to press a single, chaste kiss to his jaw, and then she went back to burying her face in his chest, “Love you too.” 

“Let’s talk about this again when you’re sober, alright?” 

She nodded as best as she could and then squeezed her eyes shut. Dick let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding, and moved in order to hold her properly. He stayed awake some time after she had dozed off, wanting to protect her from anything that could possibly want to hurt her. 

Only once she had begun to lightly snore, something she did on occasion (which Dick found equal parts adorable and hilarious), did he close his own eyes and try to relax. The steady rhythm of her breathing, her familiar scent, the way her hands held him just so; it didn’t take him long to join her in sleep. 

He dreamt of kissing the brand away until it was nothingness, and she smiled. 

**Author's Note:**

> Kory has such a baller origin story I can't help myself, ofc I'm gonna both change it for my own purposes and use it for dickkory angst. 
> 
> The tattoo design was inspired by beautiful drawings by @nanihoosartblog on tumblr, you can find it in their starfire tag and I highly recommend checking it (and all their other art) out!!
> 
> I made up a good portion of the Tamaranean things Kory talked about, and the tattoo and the brand are my own personal concepts, honestly when will DC give us a comprehensive guide to her planet like,,,it's what we deserve. 
> 
> Reviews and kudos give me a boner in my heart <3


End file.
